Ignatious Joseph: The Shirt

I recently wrote about the irrepressible Ignatious Joseph, shirt maker extraordinaire, and am now, finally, doing a promised follow-up.

Ignatious was kind enough to send me a lovely shirt to test out and I’m darn glad he did. It’s of course very well made of a luxuriously dense and fluid but lightweight cotton. It’s also unique, as are all IJ shirts, due to its collar. Joseph constructs only soft dress shirt collars, meaning there is no stiffness at all around your neck.

This is an expensive and rather complex process but it makes for a genuinely custom and unique fit, unlike any other dress shirt I own. Overall, the shape is decidedly fitted but not overly slim or binding. The sleeves are a tad too long on me and I plan to have them shortened. He also makes fully custom shirts, but, as we are on two separate continents, I opted for a ready-made model so by no means is perfection expected.

Nonetheless, it is a virtually flawless and incredibly comfortable shirt. It’s also a very sharp shirt, so much so that I wore it to the BeSpeak launch party over the summer. While at the Custom Shop earlier in the day, the BeSpeak team sat around suggesting ties for my shirt and along the way it was immortalized in my BeSpeak virtual closet.

Now, as you can probably can see in these photos, I chose not to iron the shirt before snapping a few images. While of course pressed and formal when I head out to the office, today I wanted to highlight the detail, construction and design of this shirt. No better way to do that than by taking a look at it in its delightfully rumpled state.

Notice the obvious softness of the collar and collar band, the precise stitching, the fabric’s thick but soft hand. You can also see the exacting matching of pattern and the signature shaping of the shirt, to better fit the wearer.

Clearly, this is a great shirt. But more than that, it’s made by a man dedicated to the art and science of shirt making; shirts and only shirts. The love shows.

Unfortunately, they are not available in the DC area right now. He is making inroads into the North American market, but at the moment Canada is the focus. His ready-made shirts can be ordered online, however.